


Endeavour: Future

by Parakeetist



Category: Endeavour (TV), Inspector Morse & Related Fandoms, Inspector Morse (TV), Inspector Morse - Colin Dexter
Genre: Apothecary, Childhood, F/M, Parenthood, Potions, Remedies, Work, assassin's creed Valhalla - Freeform, cart, church, pony - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28846611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parakeetist/pseuds/Parakeetist
Summary: This story is a combination of the television show, and a video game by Ubisoft which came out in 2020. The game is called “Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.” It is set for the most part in ‘Dark Ages’ England, and involves everything from fearsome magic, to towns small and large, to people of all trades.  In the game, the names of the city and region of Oxford and its shire are spelled a little differently, but still mean the same thing. (In the game, the city is 'Oxeneforda' and the county is 'Oxenefordascire.') Hope you enjoy.
Relationships: Cyril Morse & Endeavour Morse, Endeavour Morse/Constance Morse, Endeavour Morse/Joan Thursday





	Endeavour: Future

Endeavour: Future  
by Parakeetist

Cyril Morse got up and went to check the wheels of his cart. Yards away, the sturdy pony neighed in her stall. “That’s it, June, fine lass,” Cyril said. He set up the pony and secured the bulk of things he had to take to market. The cart was full. All good now.  
  
Endeavour walked toward him. “Hello, Dad,” he said, and gave a wan smile. The father knew that the son wasn’t really in a good mood. He smiled back.  
“Ah, son, could you get me a cloth?”  
“Yes, Dad.” The boy found one. “Here you are.”  
Cyril knew why the boy was feeling down: his mother was ill, and the couple was headed for a divorce. Divorce was illegal, in most cases, but Cy and Constance had agreed on terms, and they had found a scribe who would write up a case for the judge. It wouldn’t take much longer now. Connie’s cousins were moving into town, and had invited her to come live with them. She would help with simple chores, when she could. Time would pass.  
  
Cy took a minute to wipe down the reins, and tossed the cloth back to the child. “I’m off.” Dad gave a call-out to June, and began his trip.  
The boy watched as his father disappeared from view. Dev heard the yelps and laughs of other children, playing, across the street. He turned to look.  
They were playing tag. One of the girls, age eight, with blonde locks, had gotten away from a taller one, who had long, black hair.  
  
“Come on, give it back!” said the black-haired one. She kept laughing.  
“No fair. Find me first.”  
“Silly Lisa.”  
“No, you’re silly, Joanie.” More giggles.  
  
Joan paced around the storage depot, where there were bales of hay, piles of crates, and little chickens running all around. “Squawk, squawk!” Joan said, and flapped her arms.  
Her friend Lisa moved back and forth in her hiding place, which was a box with some tools in it.  
Joanie pointed. “Aha! There you are!”  
“Game over,” Lisa called, and panted as she climbed out of the box. “Say, shouldn’t we be off to see the tutor?”  
“Yes, it’s about that time. Let’s get our things.”  
  
“Hello,” Dev called, from across the street. He waved to the girls.  
“Hi there! Who are you?” Lisa said.  
“Um, that is Del Morse,” Joan tried.  
“It’s Dev.” The boy gave a grin.  
“Oh. Okay. Do you go to the boys’ tutor?”  
“Yes, I should be off in a little while. I’ve got to say goodbye to my mother.”  
“Well, then, good luck, Dev.” Joan nodded.  
“Thank you.”  
The lad was cute, Joan thought, and maybe after tutoring, she and Lisa would go back to Morse’s home and have tea.  
“My mother’s ill. She needs special tea.” Morse toed the dirt as he explained.  
“Oh! I’m so sorry. I hope she gets better.” Lisa looked concerned.  
“Thank you.”  
“We have to leave for school now. Bye, then.” Joan said.  
“Okay, then,” Dev said, and waved goodbye.  
  
He walked back into his Dad’s house. His mother, Constance, had sat up in bed.  
“Hello, son!” she called out. She picked up her walking sticks and went behind the screen, to use the chamber pot. When she was properly done up again, she walked out, and let Endeavour give her a fierce hug.  
“I love you, son. Always remember that, always.”  
Dev nodded. Then, he said, “Why did this have to happen?”  
“I don’t know, son.”  
“If God did it-”  
“Shh. God wants love, but sometimes… things just get away from us.” She put an arm around his shoulder, and kissed him on the forehead. “Want to play catch?”  
“You said we shouldn’t, in the house.”  
“I’m awake now. It’s okay to make a little noise.” She smiled. “Plus, it’s just catch. Not the full “’protect the wicket from falling over.’”  
“I think they call it cricket, Mom. Because the stick used to look ‘crooked,’ like a hockey stick.”  
“My smart boy. Let’s give it a try, eh?”  
“There’s a glove for me. It’s the size of Dad’s hand.” Dev looked around and found the ball and glove. “I don’t think there’s a glove for you, Mom.”  
“That’s okay. Just a gentle throw.”  
Dev nodded and bounced the ball off the ground, like a proper bowler. His Mom crouched a little. Then she jumped up and hit the ball with her open hand.  
It skipped toward the door. “Good shot, Mom!” Dev cheered, and ran after it.  
When he caught up to the ball, two new grown-ups stood in the doorway.  
  
“Hello,” said the man, who was in his early thirties. So was the woman. “My name is Carlus. This is my wife, Danielle.”  
“Oh? I’ll get my Mom.”  
“She knows us,” Danielle said, and smiled.  
Endeavour walked back to where his mother stood. “There are two people to see you, Mom. Carlus and Danielle.”  
“My cousins? They’re a little early. But let’s welcome them. A Christian must always be kind.” Connie picked up her sticks and walked to the door.  
There was a big greeting when the relatives met. “Mrs. Constance, now!” Carlus said. “How have you been feeling?”  
“Well, my stomach hurts, off and on, but I go to the physician, and he writes up a powder. Makes a not too bad tea.”  
“That’s good to hear,” Danielle said.  
“This is my son,” Connie said, and pointed to the lad.  
“We’ve met. He’s a fine boy.”  
Endeavour smiled. “Thank you, sir.” He bowed a little.  
“Say, child, don’t you have to be at the tutor?”  
“Very soon, yes. I’ll get the bag.” Dev ran for his school satchel. “I’m off.” He hugged his mother again, nodded goodbye to the cousins, and hurried down the street.  
“Be careful. Stay toward the side of the road,” Carlus said.  
“I will, sir.” Morse rambled off.  
  
“Reading is hard sometimes,” Connie said.  
“Oh, aye. I wasn’t solid on it until I was 12. Dannie here, she’s learning now, isn’t she?”  
“And a fine pointer-at-things I’ll make someday.” They all laughed. “Say, Mom, did you get any food in your tum yet?”  
“Ah, that’s a no.” Connie leaned on one of the sticks. Carlus led her to a chair.  
“I’ll whip up something. A little fruit – did you want chicken this time of day?” Danielle set up a pan on the tray above the pot.  
“Salt fish, please.”  
“Will do.” The younger woman found the fish, among the storage, and set it above the fire.  
Soon, Dannie had fixed a small meal for all of them. They began to talk, and joke, and even to sing songs.

  


Dev arrived at the tutor’s place. The man had his scroll book unrolled at the podium. In the large living room of the home, several other kids sat at their desks.  
“Why, good morning, young Master Morse!” the tutor, Edwin Charwick, roared out cheerfully. “Let’s all say hello.”  
“Hello,” said the class.  
“Hi there,” Morse said, and took his seat.  
The class began with a few moments of prayers. “And may Almighty God vouchsafe to watch over us all,” Mr. Charwick finished. “Let’s begin.”  
Edwin took chalk and wrote on a board. “Who can tell me what this says?”  
Another boy raised his hand. “’Order pie and milk’?” Harris McGee said.  
“Correct! Let’s try another phrase.”  
Edwin wrote, “100 milliliters lemon juice, a dozen eggs,” and then asked the class to read it. Morgan Kilpatrick won this time. He was good at reading numbers.  
An hour later, the boys were let out to use the washrooms. After that, they ran around in the yard. Mr. Charwick’s wife, Blania, came home.  
“’Lo, everybody,” she said, and waved to the yard. The children waved back.  
Blania busied herself in the bedroom. She swept up, then went to inform her espoused that she’d take her afternoon rest. He nodded.  
Teaching resumed. In another few hours, the class was dismissed. “Safe home, everyone,” Charwick said, and the boys strolled back to their houses.  
  
Minutes later, a miracle happened.  
Dev spotted Joan, who was running toward him.  
“Quick! Quick!” she said, out of breath as she halted. “Your Mom’s next bag of potion needs a little more orange weed.”  
“Don’t they have that at the apothecary’s store?” Dev asked.  
“They ran out. They said you would know where they should be picked.”  
“Ah – yes, I know where. Come with me.”  
The two ran down a path, into the woods. Dev sniffed the air. At last he picked up the scent of the special weed, and found a patch of it. They picked quite a lot, and stuck it in their pockets. Then they hustled off to the potion-maker’s place.  
“Hello, ma’am,” Dev said to the clerk. “We need this, added to my mother’s order, if you would.” He and Joan plunked down their large handfuls of orange weed on the desktop.  
“I’ll see to it. Let’s check.”  
“My last name is spelled M-o-r-s-e,” Dev offered.  
“Yes! I found it. This will take a moment.” The woman, whose name was Ethel, set the pile of plants on a chopping table. She donned thick gloves and began to cut.  
When all was ready, she prepared a test cup of tea, with the tiniest pinch of the new powder.  
It promptly exploded.  
“Jimony!” Ethel shouted. “Are you two all right?” she said to the boy and girl.  
“Yes,” both of them peeped.  
“Let me fix this.” She looked at her chart of ingredients, and put in a tad bit more white mushroom powder. She made another small tea. “Hmm, tastes good. If your mother says it’s not good, young man, please bring it back. I’ll trade you a new bag, no extra charge, until we get this right.” Ethel tied up the sack and gave it to Morse.  
Morse immediately handed it to Joan. “Got to give a lady something to do,” he said, and did not try to suppress a grin.  
Joanie got the joke, and laughed until she cried. This Dev fellow was going to be fun to be with. If only she could work up her courage to ask him to a church event. Maybe choir.  
  
Well, time to go. She waved goodbye to Ethel, and they started back to Morse’s home. The cousins were waiting up, with Constance.  
“I’ll take the bag, Miss – what is your name?” Carlus said.  
“It’s Joan. Joan Thursday.” She curtsied. “The apothecary has assured us that this batch will not explode.”  
“Very useful to know,” said a puzzled but relieved-looking Danielle.  
The group sat down, and began to talk. An hour went by.  
Then there was a knock at the door. Dev went to see.  
It was his father. “Hello, sir.”  
“Evening, lad. Didn’t know we had received company.” He stepped into the living area. “Oh, it’s the kin.”  
“Yes, sir.” Carlus stood up. “We have come to provide help for your wife.”  
“Well?” Cyril held out his arms.  
Unable to stop from crying, Connie hugged her husband. He sniffled a little.  
“Big, tough man, such as yourself,” Connie said, and smiled. He chuckled as well.  
“Can I help you pack?” Cyril asked his wife.  
“Eh, it’s already done.”  
“Let’s get it in the cart. All of you might be able to fit in back…”  
Eventually, everything was prepared, Cy snapped the reins, and June the donkey set out on the road to the new place.  
In time, they reached the house. Cyril dropped off everything and everyone. “If you need anything, don’t be afraid to get me.” He gently tapped Connie’s nose.  
“I’ll remember.” With a shy glow, and then a vigorous hug for her son, she nodded farewell, and went into her new dwelling.

  


Some time later, after stops to talk to a friend, and then buy some candy for his son, Cyril pulled up at his own home. He handed young Morse the sack of sweets. Dev said thanks and put them in a storage jar in his room.  
Dev sat down on the bed and took from his desk a drawing book. Then he took out a note that a friend had passed him, while he was at school.  
“Marvelous word puzzles,” the note read. His eyes scanned the page. There was a lot to take in. He began to write down the answers.  
After a while, his eyes started to swim. He blinked, and removed everything but his underclothes. He put on a nightshirt. He said his prayers, and drifted off.  
In his dreams, he saw Lisa, and Joanie, and plenty of other girls, as well as boys, playing a madcap game of tag at the church dance. Then they switched to a properly organized, circular dance, swaying gently back and forth, and sometimes bumping into each other.  
  
All of a sudden, the dream switched to his late teens. He saw himself taking a new set of clothes, blue in color, from a man who sat at a table. A man with a pike stood next to that person. Morse feared to meet the eyes of that man.  
What was this? Joining the city watch? Why? He wanted to finish his schooling and become a tutor, at a university.  
The dream changed again: now he and Joan stood next to one another, in the aisle of a church. She was nineteen, he twenty-one. Morse couldn’t catch the words of the priest. The other man was reading from the Bible. Then he put it down, and took up a shaker which held holy water. The priest sprinkled an engagement ring with the water, and held it up to Joan.  
Sleepy little Dev Morse drifted back into nothingness.  
Hours later, he woke up feeling refreshed, and for once, that he was not lost.


End file.
